Arrested ministers should be sent to SLTB restrooms, not to Welikada: Amaraweera

By Chaturanga Samarawickrama   

Parliamentarians who are arrested should be sent to the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) restrooms and not to the Welikada prison, Transport Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said, commenting on the conditions of SLTB crew restrooms.  

He was on an inspection tour at the SLTB’s crew rest rooms.   
“The driver and conductor restrooms look like hell on earth,” he quipped.   

“The toilets at the driver and conductor restrooms are flooded and stink. The restrooms are full of dust and cobwebs. Due to the high temperature in the area, the rooms are like ovens.   
“No fans or bulbs are found. The restrooms look like caves,” the Minister said.  The Minister promised to repair the restrooms with air-conditioning facilities. He also promised to provide new beds.  He inspected the passenger transport facilities provided during the festive season and the standard of the facilities that had been given to the passengers at the SLTB. The Minister said he noted that the required bus service had been assigned to passengers to reach home, but not enough facilities had been provided for them to take food and sanitary facilities.   

The Minister inspected the public toilet facilities and said the facilities were poor.   

During the inspection, the Minister found out the doors of the public toilet had been damaged.  Later the Minister called the contractor in charge of maintaining the public toilets and directed him to repair all the damages and repaint them.   

“If the directive is not carried out the Ministry will cancel the contract,” he said.